O’Connor: Follow Jackson’s Example

   By LUKE ANDERSON

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor congratulated the supporters of the Robert H. Jackson center and encouraged them to learn from Jackson’s legacy in a short speech Thursday.

   The invitation-only event was attended by state, local and federal judges, lawyers, Jackson Center volunteers, members of local foundations and area elected officials, including County Executive Greg Edwards, Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, Sen. Cathy Young and Assemblyman William L. Parment.

   Justice O’Connor was introduced by Jackson Center President Greg Peterson, who detailed her importance to the founding of the center.

   Peterson said that when the idea for the center was germinating, Dan Bratton, who would become the center’s first executive director, had a meeting with Justice O’Connor. To his mention of the possibility of founding the center, Justice O’Connor replied that the center was important, and gave Bratton a list of things to do to make it successful.

She told Bratton to invite Chief Justice William Rehnquist to speak at an early event at the center, and said that she would personally endorse the invitation. She also arranged meetings for Bratton with the curator of the Library of Congress and a representative of the Supreme Court Historical Society.

   Peterson thanked Justice O’Connor for her work in helping with the center’s establishment, and for her mentions of the center in public comments.

   ‘‘That has given us credibility locally, nationally and now internationally,’’ said Peterson.

   In thanks, Peterson presented Justice O’Connor with a lithographed portrait of Jackson. The original is hung in the Jackson Center. Only two other copies have ever been given out, one to Rehnquist.

   Justice O’Connor used her brief remarks to compliment Peterson on the success of the center, and to urge the audience to remember Jackson’s legacy as it applies to today’s problems.

   Justice O’Connor remarked that Jackson was a product of the Jamestown Public School system, and that he was the last Supreme Court Justice to achieve his post without graduating from law school. Jackson attended Albany Law School for just one year; he learned the law while working at a local law firm.

   ‘‘I hope you’ll figure out what he learned here in these public schools and try to teach some of the current generation some of his incredible use of language and his ability to reason and understand,’’ said Justice O’Connor.

   Justice O’Connor said Jackson’s legacy is particularly important as the nation struggles to decide how to deal with captured terrorist suspects.

   The guiding principle behind the Nuremberg trials, of which Jackson was the chief architect, was the ideal that even the perpetrators of the most horrible crimes ever witnessed by mankind were entitled to a fair and open trial, not for their own sake, but in recognition of the fact that documenting their atrocities and ensuring that justice be done was more important to the general good than satisfying the desire for vengeance.

   ‘‘That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason,’’ said Jackson in his opening remarks at the trial.

   Even as many military leaders were clamoring for the Nazi war criminals to be summarily executed, so terrible and obvious were their crimes, Jackson apprehended the historical need to offer a meticulous accounting of the specific offenses committed by the Nazi leaders, and to uphold the principle that justice should be applied even to the most barbarous men ever to walk the earth, in order to prevent future war criminals from turning them into a cause celebre.

   ‘‘The evidence is there with such authenticity and such detail, that there can be no responsible denier of these crimes in the future, and no tradition of martyrdom of the Nazi leaders can arise among informed people,’’ Jackson said.

   Justice O’Connor praised Jackson for his integrity and foresight, as the Nuremberg trials became a landmark example of the rule of law trumping the rule of men.

   She told the audience that Jackson’s work is especially relevant today.

   ‘‘We’re facing so many problems today, an era of terrorism, a time when we’re detaining people in Guantanamo Bay, and we have many legal issues to face as do other nations around the world.

   ‘‘And we can look back at some of his commentary to guide us in the new era. So you’re doing a very good thing here in opening and maintaining this Jackson Center. It does matter, and probably now more than it ever did,’’ she said.

   Justice O’Connor argued that the principles that served the Great Powers in dealing with Nazi war criminals after WWII are just as applicable to the treatment of terror suspects today. Justice, applied in a fair and open manner, is not just a good in itself. It produces tangible benefits for all concerned.

The Post-Journal

Jamestown, New York

Friday, August 10, 2007

Vol. 181, No. 49

Section A, Pages 1 and 3